One of the great legacies of North Carolina and our nation’s history was the explosion of the American civil rights movement. As the leader of this movement, Martin Luther King Jr. repeatedly appealed to our strengths as a nation: the American founding, the rule of law, and Christian tradition. Ultimately, his words – often intended for white audiences – united much of the nation under the banner of equality. Unfortunately, neglect of teaching American history and a more secularized culture leads to a critical theory of race, a belief that everything can be explained by racism while whites are portrayed as inherently oppressive.
Here in North Carolina, much of the struggle is visible in the struggle for public schools. A March City Journal article exposed the radicalism and racial obsession in Wake County Public Schools, the state’s largest school district.
Worst of all, some teachers and administrators see hiding critical content of racial theory from parents as a necessary tactic to attain their own perceived higher good. On their preferred racial agenda – one that elevates individuals by race as either victims or oppressors – not even parents should be allowed to thwart the indoctrination of children. They find success for their agenda in the shadows, but it fails in the light of established truths.
This is a critical point. Not only does it postulate the Marxist doctrine that the state is higher than the individual or the family, but it also reminds us that critical racial theory still fails in the market of ideas. While the ideology has gained some influence from lively corporations, critical racial theorists are still largely relegated to captive audiences at universities, state schools, or other programs through state or federal funds.
In contrast to secrecy tactics and bureaucratic maneuvers, the struggle for equality prevailed, especially in the American South, during the civil rights movement on the marketplace of ideas. The sit-ins in Greensboro, the civil rights campaign in Birmingham and the March on Washington brought their ideas to the public square.
Equality is the right view because it reflects the Imago Dei and founding principles and documents of America. King and his associates borrowed heavily from these documents because they had authority and the nation was familiar with the ideas they put forward. “We as Americans are human rights advocates. It’s a revelation from God to our Founding Fathers, ”said American civil rights icon Rev. Andrew Young.
Conservative-minded lawmakers in North Carolina have responded to attempts to indoctrinate students with HB 324. When reading the current legislation, it is difficult to find the logic against it. But some legislators, editorial offices and many ideologues grind their teeth over the bill. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson summed up the legislation when he said, “This legislation ensures that our students are taught that we all have value, regardless of who we are – or who our ancestors were.”
Many are drawn to Critical Racial Theory and other lively agendas because they call for an end to injustice and injustice in society. They often still have good intentions and are blind to the real agenda and the destructiveness that it will leave behind. Human nature is not perfect on this side of heaven. There are many examples of destruction, especially in the 20th century, in the belief that humanity can be perfected. America’s founding and the American civil rights movement remind us that we cannot get beyond the principle of equality of the human person.
The quest to divide people by class, race, or socio-economic status is poisonous throughout world history. Ultimately, critical racial theory will fail because it offers division rather than hope. Yet we should have the courage to speak the truth to mitigate the consequences of those who seek to destroy our great heritage.
Ray Nothstine is the opinion editor of the Carolina Journal.
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